In An Instant
by algernon13
Summary: In an instant Katara's life was changed. She freed Aang from the iceberg but in a strange twist of fate she was captured by the Fire Nation when the stormed the small village in the South Pole. Would she be able to survive being a prisoner on Prince Zuko's ship as he took her to the Fire Nation to be interrogated on the whereabouts of the Avatar?
1. Prologue

Prologue

One second there was an iceberg and the next a glowing light appeared revealing a floating boy. This boy, I would later find out, was the very last Airbender in the entire world. Until now, air benders were thought to be extinct when Fire Lord Sozin had them all murdered because he was afraid of the next Avatar. But somehow Aang, the Avatar and the last airbender, was frozen in an iceberg and released thanks to a combination of my short temper and inability to control my own water bending. Sokka, my brother, and I brought Aang back to our village in the Southern Water Tribe and introduced him to everyone in the village. I hoped that the villagers would embrace him because he was the long lost Avatar, but instead, they wanted him gone. Fear makes people do strange things and that includes shutting out the only person who could put a stop to this terrible war that had been going on for over a hundred years. I however knew that Aang could save the world; he only needed a bit more training to master the four elements. But how was he going to do that? How was he was he going to travel the world with nothing except his flying bison named Appa who couldn't even fly because he was trapped in an iceberg for a century with Aang?

I was barely awake and I could hardly move. Every muscle in my body ached from practicing my water-bending the day before so I decided that my brother could live without his fried penguin meat for breakfast as I rested for a few more minutes. The past few days were blissful and exciting because Aang brought so much energy into the sleepy village that was predominantly women and children because the men were fighting in the war. As I laid in my sleeping bag and stared at the ceiling of our family Igloo, I thought about the world that stretched far beyond the South Pole. Oh how I hoped that Aang would ask me to join him on his worldly adventures as he sought out to perfect bending all of the elements. Gran Gran would never approve of a young girl like me traipsing around the world with a 112 year-old child and an idiotic meat-obsessed brother. But I had to try to leave this block of ice; I had to do my duty to help end the war by helping the Avatar.

I let out a loud yawn when I finally decided to climb out of my warm and safe sleeping bag when I heard a loud bang and several screams from outside. I jumped out of my bed and ran out of the door to see what was going on. There were several dark metal Fire Navy ships surrounding our village and soldiers attacking, chasing, and roughly restraining people I had known my entire life.

I stood frozen in front of my Igloo unable to assess the chaos that was taking place and unable to help anyone. I couldn't do anything. I knew that if I tried to fight using my knowledge of the very basics of water bending the Fire Nation soldiers would capture me. Instead of taking action and fighting for my family and my village, I simply watched the Fire Nation hurt everything that was dear to me. I stood on the cold, freshly snow covered ground too afraid to help my own village. I was ashamed of myself.

I saw Sokka and Aang run towards the ships. They were outnumbered and had no way of winning against the Fire Nation soldiers unless they had back-up. Sokka and Aang gave the soldiers blow after blow but every time a row of soldiers were defeated, a fresh row of soldiers would bombard them with fire punches and fire blasts. I had to do something and stop worrying about my poor waterbending fighting skills; I ran towards the danger, ready to fight alongside my brother and my new friend Aang.

Once I joined my brother and Aang I realized that I was too late to be of any help. The soldiers had stopped attacking us but they had us surrounded. "Sokka," I turned my head and whispered in his ear. "You and Aang need to take Appa and fly out of here as fast as you can."

"I can't let you do that Katara. You are my baby sister and I am responsible for you," he whispered back. "You take Aang and fly way from this place." I tore my eyes away from the numerous Fire Nation soldiers and looked at my brother. _My brother could die today_ I thought as a hot tear rolled down my cheek. I nodded slightly letting my brother know that I was ready to grab Aang and run. Sokka elbowed me in the ribs, a sign of his brotherly affection that he did ever since we were kids, and I pushed Aang to the icy ground and the soldiers started attacking again.

I threw myself on the ground landing right next to Aang. I motioned to Appa, who was rearing on his hind two legs behind my family's igloo. Aang and I crawled on our elbows towards Appa as Sokka kept nearly a dozen soldiers at bay assuring our escape…or at least that was what I thought. All of sudden I felt a pair of strong meaty hands grab my ankles and drag me away from Aang. I let out a yell of terror as I tried to dig my nails into the ice. The slightly heavy Fire Nation soldier picked me up and slung me over his shoulder. I saw Aang on a ball of rolling air coming towards me in an attempt to save me but I couldn't risk the Fire Nation capturing the Avatar because I was in trouble.

"Aang!" I yelled trying to stop him from rescuing me. " You have to find Sokka and get out of here!" I could tell Aang was fighting with himself to decide whether or not to listen or to ignore my request. I knew that the Fire Nation would not stop hurting my village until they had a prisoner. I had to help my village and I had to help Aang fulfill his destiny as the Avatar. I made the decision that I would suffer in Aang's place if it meant helping to end the war. It was the least I could for my friend and for the world.

The Fire Nation solider whose shoulder I was flung over was nearly to the ships when Aang seemed to cut his losses and let me go. Still on top of his rolling ball of hair, Aang changed his course in pursuit of finding Sokka. I wasn't sure what condition Aang would find him in and the thought of it made me sob uncontrollably into the sweat covered uniform of the immense body that was carrying me. Trying to keep my sights on Aang through my sobs as he whizzed through the village, the soldier started walking up a ramp to one of the ships.

"SOKKA!" I screamed desperately trying to get one last look of my brother before I would leave forever. There was no sight of Sokka. I screamed, sobbed, and punched the back of the soldier. Then, my world went dark.


	2. Katara

Katara

I woke up and found myself lying on a hard metal floor. The back of my head was throbbing with pain, probably something to do with being knocked out on my way into the Fire Nation ship. I pushed myself up from the cold floor, my arms shaking underneath me. I scanned the small dark room only to see walls that were also metal and a heavy metal door with a small slot underneath it. The slot was my only light source, my only sense of hope. I knew that there wasn't much I could do to escape; my water bending skills needed more practice and I was too weak to fight the entire crew in hand-to- hand combat. The only solace I had in this prison was to remember a typical day in the Water Tribe. So I closed my eyes, leaned on one of the metal walls, and pictured the life that was taken from me.

In the morning I would wake up and make breakfast for my brother and my Gran Gran. Then I would wonder off and try to find a secluded patch of ice to practice my waterbending. I never had a waterbending teacher so I would always try to experiment with movements that would make the water dance around in the air. Sometimes I would get caught "goofing off", as Sokka liked to call it, and he would make me come back to the village and help Gran Gran with whatever she needed. Sokka, being the oldest boy in our village, gave himself the job of training the younger kids for sentry duty while the rest of the women did actual chores and kept the tribe together. Once in a while I would finish my work early so I would help Sokka with his tglorified babysitting. The children would never actually pay attention to what he was trying to teach them; instead they would roll around in the snow during "instruction" and pelt him with snowballs. There would be some days where Sokka and I were sent to go fishing for the village and these trips always ended in us fighting. Sokka would make fun of my waterbending abilities and I would insult his attempts at training the village kids. It was on one of these terrible fishing trips where we came across Aang and broke him out of the iceberg.

 _Aang_ , I thought. The last time saw Aang was when I was being carried away to the Fire Nation ship. _This_ ship. This ship, where I was a prisoner and had no idea what my future would look like. At least when I was in the Southern Water Tribe I could count on the next day being the same as the last. But now, my future was uncertain and I was at the mercy of someone else's "kindness".

I paced back and forth in my metal cage wondering if I would ever see the light of day again. All I wanted to do was scream and bang on the walls, hoping that it might annoy the guards enough to let me out. But I knew better. I knew how these men were immune to feeling anything except the pleasure of taking the lives of children's families and mothers- my mother. I decided not give them the satisfaction of knowing how scared and helpless I felt. I would instead, stay strong but defiant. I was not going to let them break me no matter how hard they tired.

All of sudden I heard loud footsteps clang on the metal floor. I scurried over to the door, dropped to my hands and knees, and looked through the slot on the bottom of the door to see who it was. I couldn't quite make out the face of the mysterious visitor except for an angry red scar on the left side of his face. "Let me in," the visitor, or interrogator for all I was concerned, demanded. One of the guards unlocked the door and it swung open with such force that my head would have a dent in it if I didn't crawl away from it in time. I backed away from the figure that stood in front of me until I felt my back against a wall.

I could feel my face get hot and my hands start to sweat but I didn't know exactly why. The figure that stood in front of me was nothing but a boy. He was maybe a few years older than me but he did not strike me as formidable in any way. He wore dark red Fire Nation armor, which had shoulder pads that were much too large for his thin frame. His head was shaved save for a high ponytail tied with a red strip of cloth. Then there was the red scar that consumed the left side of his face, which made me cringe wondering about the kind of pain he went through when he received it. I knew I should have felt scared and vulnerable but this boy they sent to interrogate me seemed just as trapped as I was.

"So," he said with quiet intensity that made me squirm with fear. "I hear you found something in that block of ice you call a home." I could feel my anger bubbling to the surface at the mention of my home so I fixed my blue eyes on his golden ones trying to keep my ever-growing hatred toward my interrogator at bay.

"What do you want from me?" I spit out. He just shrugged and crouched down so that his face was inches from mine.

"You know what I want and you are going to tell me where I can find him." I had a feeling that the "him" my interrogator was referring to was Aang, but I needed to buy him some time and I was prepared to take any pain that came with my refusal to reveal anything about Aang's whereabouts.

"Where you can find who?" I asked defiantly. Acting innocent and appearing visibly afraid might have been a better tactic to go with because I could have probably saved myself a lifetime of suffering, but I was not about to let myself appear weak in front of someone who was merely a boy. The boy sighed in frustration breaking our eye contact and stood up in front of me- towering over me.

"The Avatar!" he yelled. "I know that he was with you. But there is no doubt that he got away with your help. Now…tell me!" I sat against the wall silently, staring into his eyes. He turned around with is back facing me and I could see his muscles tense up. My breath started to quicken. He spun around and his hand collided with my face with so much force that it knocked me to the ground. _This is what I get for my defiance_ , I thought. _But it's not going to stop me from staying strong so that I can protect The Avatar and my brother from this monster._

I lifted myself off of the floor and stood up with the intention of sizing up my captor. I was at least a head shorter than him so I tried to make myself seem as big as I possibly could by squaring my shoulders. "I don't know where he is," I said slowly. "Even if I did I would never tell you."

He stepped closer to me and whispered in my ear, "Then I guess it's going to be a long and painful road ahead. I'll make sure to get a piece of cloth for you to bite down on so your screams won't distract the crew from their work." He gave me one last look, tore a piece of cloth off of his tunic and threw it in my direction. He turned around and walked out the door just as a burly man with a long black beard wearing a cut-off red Fire Nation shirt came into my cell.

"What kind of people are you?" I screamed. "I'll never tell you anything about the Avatar even if you have to kill me!" They only time I experienced this kind of violence was when my mother was killed. But I was not accustomed violence. The men in my tribe went to fight in the war so that our village could live as normally as possible. I guess their efforts to keep the war from affecting us were only temporary. No one can be unaffected by war…especially one that has been going on for over one hundred years.

The cruelty of the war had finally caught up with me even though the Fire Nation had taken the woman who always made me feel safe. It was my turn to face the Fire Nation and to let them know that I wasn't afraid of pain and that I would die before I gave them any information about Aang. I knew that I had to do my part and make sure that he was safe from the Fire Nation. He was the only person who could stop the war.

The giant man took earthshattering steps towards me, swinging a leather whip in his right hand. I couldn't help but wish for death. Anything was better than waiting to be tortured. I backed up, keeping my eyes on the whip until I felt cold metal beneath both of my hands. I slid down the wall, hoping that curling up into the smallest ball I could manage would miraculously stop my tormentor. The man raised the whip over his head, and for a fraction of a second he hesitated making me think if he would really hurt me. I could see a hint of regret in his black, beady eyes but that feeling didn't linger in his eyes for long as he brought down the whip with such a force that the fabric of my parka was completely ripped open and revealed the brown skin of my shoulder.

He brought the whip down on my skin over and over again, ripping my clothes and making my arms and back bleed where the whip stroke more than once. With every fresh strike, every fresh welt and cut, I only allowed to myself to grunt in pain as silent tears cascaded down my warm cheeks. If I yelled or screamed or cursed the whipping man to hell then they would know that I was close to breaking: close to giving them information about Aang when I vowed to give him as much time as I could so that he and Sokka could find place to hide.

As I curled up against the wall in the corner of the metal room with my arms folded around my head, I became increasingly numb to the relentless whipping. Strike after strike I could feel my body sink into itself and then the pain finally stopped.

When I finally came to, I found myself lying on the hard metal floor looking at a pair of blurry red boots. _No one wears red boots in the Water Tribe,_ I thought to myself. It wasn't until I picked my head off of the floor and pushed my body up onto my hands and knees when I saw that the boy was back in my cell. He was towering over me and looked like I was some kind of insect that needed to be squashed. "I'm not telling you where Aang is." I said, hoping that my voice sounded more confident than I felt. The boy just stared at me with his deep golden eyes locked on my own blue irises and refused to break the connection as if he was trying to read my mind. The boy finally broke the intense eye contact and started to circle me like an artic seal-shark. He didn't say anything to me. I almost wished that he would scream or even torture me because the sound of his light footfalls echoing in the metal room made every muscle in body tense up; he was oddly calm.

"Well," he started. "Then I guess you'll just have to come with me to the Fire Nation capital."


End file.
